Bengals eye Bolts as drought-busters

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis talks on the sidelines in the first half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl)
The Associated Press

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis talks on the sidelines in the first half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl)

Cincinnati in January is a gray, cold place. Even the trees look miserable.

Come Sunday, should the hometown Bengals lose their playoff game to the underdog Sunshine Boys from San Diego, Cincinnati would be something else.

It would be a gray, cold and whiny place.

Well after the Chargers bused across the Ohio River and to a plane in Kentucky, the Bengals bashing would rage on.

Losers. Bungles. Chokers.

Marvin Lewis, the Bengals coach, has a good idea of what the cacophony would be like. Lewis has coached the Bengals for the last 11 years. The four other times he took them to the playoffs, they got bounced in the first game. There was a loss after the 2005 season. And another after the 2009 season. And two more, following 2011 and 2012.

The losing wasn’t all of it. After each one-and-done, the amateur historians chimed in. The Bengals, they noted, last won a playoff game in January 1991.

If Lewis has heard or read it once, he’s heard or read it a thousand times. Cincinnati’s playoff victory drought is the longest one going in the NFL.

And the topic bubbled again this week, starting Monday, when Lewis addressed his team and then reporters in both Cincinnati and San Diego.

“We’re not going to get any of you to shut up about it until we win,” he said. “That’s the way it is and I told (my players) that this morning, flatly, okay?

“That’s the way it is. That’s the way it is.”

This season, the Bengals rolled the rock higher up the slope than at any other time during the Great Playoff Drought, now in its 22nd year.

In large part because they won all eight home games, they'll go into Paul Brown Stadium as a 7-point favorite to beat the Chargers, whereas they were a betting underdog in three of the fourth playoff losses under Lewis and merely a 2.5-point favorite the other time, against the Jets in the 2009 Wild Card game.

“This one or ’09 are probably the best two positions we were in,” Bengals offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth said. “We have a home game. Our team is playing well.

“The difference in ’09 is that we finished really bad for the regular season. We didn’t play that well. Right now, we’ve had some really good games to end the regular season. This would be a really good opportunity for us to do what we want.”

Like the carp in the Ohio River who have mud veins that allow them to flourish, the Bengals say they’re equipped to cope with the cold-and-wet weather forecast for Sunday.

“Cold weather teams play well in cold weather,” defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry said. “You get a team like Miami or San Diego – from a place where the weather’s always nice – in this 20-degree weather, it’s a big difference on your body.”

Giberry said the frigid conditions will “be a big changeup” for the Chargers.

“They have to come here to The Jungle (Paul Brown Stadium) and deal with our weather and our fans. We’ll see if we get the best out of them,” he said.

Remembering the dismal losses in Houston the last two postseasons, quarterback Andy Dalton is grateful that he didn’t have to board an airplane this week.

“It’s going to be great to have a home game,” said Dalton, whose playoff line shows four interceptions and no TD passes in the two games. “I think that’s going to be to our advantage, get the crowd involved, and to not have to deal with the crowd noise and the different things that go with playing on the road. Having a home game is going to be big for us.”

Cold weather. Home crowd. Heavy favorite.

It’s all lining up for the Bengals to finally win a playoff game. But will they?

“Guys are ready to take that next step, to get a big playoff win, and that’s something that this team needs,” Dalton said.